Hub-band.



J. A. SLATER.

HUB BAND.

APYLIOATIOH FILED DBO. 31, 1907.

Patented May 11, 1909.

WITNESSES I r amz UNIT .11) Sflhkflllflti PATEN T ()FFIUE.

JAMES A. SLATER, 01* CLEVELAND, OlllO, ASSIGNOR TO THE NAllONAL MALLEABLE CAST- INGS COMPANY, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, A CORPORATION OF OHIO.

HUB -B AND.

Application filed December 31, 1907.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 11, 1909.

Serial No. 408,726.

To all who/It it me 1 concern:

Be it known that I, JAMES A. Snx'rnn. of Cleveland, tuyahoga county, Ohio, have ihventcd a new and useful Hub-Band, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, referei'iee being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which Figure 1 is a front elevation of the hub band, and Fig. 3 is a vertical central section. thereof.

Hub-bands require often to be reinforced at the outer end in order to give them greater strength at the end portions and to guard against the injury which they are apt to receive from striking vehicle wheels or other obstructions; and heretofore it has been the practice to reinforce such hub-bands by casting them with a thickened outer margin, which terminates at the inner end with an abrupt shoulder, against which the wooden hub is intended to bear when the band is applied to the wheel. Hub-bands thus made have been found to be defective, because, if the wooden hub block fails to fit against such shoulder properly, it is impossible, from a practical standpoint, to trim the wood in order to make a perfect fit. if the wooden block is too short, a gap is left between it and. the shoulder of the hub-band, which makes a bad appearance, and, on the other hand, if the block is too long, the hub-band cannot be pressed back into proper place.

In wheel construction, the hub-bands are not pressed completely onto the hub block until the spokes are inserted, and then if the block is too long, even to a very slight extent, the end of the block will engage the shoulder of the hub-band and prevent the latter from going on far enough to engage the spokes. In such cases, in order to properly trim the block, the hub-band has to be out off at great expense, the hub-band being ruined. This difficulty in )ractice is a ser1- ous one and it is obviated y my invention, in accordance with which 1 form the hubband with a reinforcement at its outer end, constituted by thickening the metal of the hub-band at this point and making it internally of beveled or tapered form, increasing in thickness outwardly and extending to the extreme end. v'hen the hub-band is made in this way and is pressed onto the hub block, if the block is a little too long, the tapered form of the thickened outer end of the hubband will not prevent it from being forced back into engagement with the spokes for the inclined metal will compress the wood sufficiently to make this possible. if it is desired. to use the same hub-band for a longer hub, it is only necessary to trim the end of the block to match the taper of the hub band and the hub-band can then be pressed on readily, allowing the block to project nearer to the edge of the hubband. At

present this can only be accomplished by notehing the end of the block, the difliculties already described still being possible.

My invention eliminates entirely the sharp shoulder which heretofore has made the adjustment of the hub-band difficult; and it also has the advantage of piiiducing a hub-band having greater strength in proportion to its weight than heretofore.

in the accompanying drawings which illustrate my invention, 2. represents the cast metal hub-hand, which externally is of the ordinary form and is provided, at the end, with an internal annular shoulder or thiokened portion 3 which ta ers on an incline from the exterior of the and backward to the inner surface of the hub-band body, the thickened portion extending substantially to the extreme end of the hubband.

I claim:

A hub-band terminating at its outer end in an integral internal annular shoulder beveled upon its interior inwardly to the normal thickness of the body of the band, the thickest portion of the shoulder being at the outer extremity of the band.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand.

JAMES A. SLATER.

Witnesses:

HARRY E. ORR, R. E. MILLER. 

